


Faith and Amazing Grace

by MrsWhozeewhatsis (OxfordCommaLover)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode: s01e12 Faith, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 20:10:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18038135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OxfordCommaLover/pseuds/MrsWhozeewhatsis
Summary: Set in season1, in the episode Faith, where Sam drags Dean to a faith healer and he meets Layla.





	Faith and Amazing Grace

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Louden Swain Amazing Angela FanFic FanArt Project! Special thanks to @littlegreenplasticsoldier for making this shine. I need some art to go with this, so if anyone is interested in making an edit or aesthetic for this, let me know! I hope you guys like it.

By the time Dean was thirteen years old, he actually believed the line he had always told Sam: “Nothing’s gonna get Dad because he’s a hunter, a superhero, and superheroes always get the bad guy, Sammy.” Teenage Dean knew the job was dangerous but had no concept that the good guys might possibly _lose_. The concept was forced upon him when he and his dad found Marcus, a fellow hunter that had ruffled Dean’s hair not two weeks before, lying in the woods with a bloody hole in his chest. While John taught his son how to wrap a body and build a pyre, Dean adjusted his view of his world to include a bloody end for his father and, eventually, for himself, too.

Years passed by, and Dean learned to deal with the fear of death by finding ways to taunt it. Never on hunts, because then lives other than just his own were on the line, but later. After the adrenaline rush had passed, Dean would drink, smoke, pick fights in bars, and drive too fast with some poor sucker’s girl clinging to him while the wind whipped through her hair. He knew that nothing he did was healthy, or at all good for him, but until his debt came due, he was intent on pushing Fate’s limits.

Hunt smart. Work hard. Play harder. Save the innocents. Look out for Sammy.

When Dean found himself lying in a hospital bed, his heart beating so weakly he could barely breathe, he regretted nothing. The kids were safe, Sam was safe, and he’d done his job. If someone made a movie of his life, this would be a fine ending. He couldn’t imagine anyone paying cash money to see his life on the screen, but maybe a couple of bored teenagers would sneak into the theater to make out and leave having thought that Dean Winchester wasn’t so bad.

Sam ruined his perfect ending, though, by dragging Dean to a freakin’ faith healer. Then, Roy LeGrange flipped the script upside down and healed Dean. What kind of crap movie would that make?

And then there was Layla.

Layla was everything Dean wasn’t. She was beauty and light and faith and grace… such amazing grace. After being denied her miracle for the sixth time, she merely smiled and said, “It’s okay.”

Layla’s mother raged at Dean. “Why do you deserve to live more than my daughter?”

Dean didn’t have an answer for her.

When the truth came out and SueAnn was dead, all Dean could think about was Layla. In a few months, Layla and her light and grace would be gone, and Dean would continue living his cursed existence. Dean wanted to run and hide from the ugly truth, go back to taunting death full time, but Sam apparently invited Layla to their dump of a motel room. She faced him, her miracle destroyed, her life nearing its end, and she still had faith. Her grace still lit the room in spite of her disappointment.

“So, what now?” Dean asked her, not sure if he wanted to make himself feel better or worse.

Layla smiled softly. “God works in mysterious ways.” She lay her hand gently on the side of Dean’s face and Dean saw a dream life with her in her eyes….

Waking up next to her… warm, in clean sheets that smelled like something fruity and blankets that didn’t have mystery stains… maybe they’d both have 9-to-5 jobs where they could work from home sitting next to each other, tapping away madly on their computers. Then, on the weekends, they’d climb into Baby, but not for a hunt, just for a drive in the country with the windows down. He would have Layla pressed up against himself, instead of some nameless, faceless bar bimbo. Layla, who would smile up at him, her hair probably held back with a fancy silk scarf. There’d be no weapons in the trunk, no blood stains on the upholstery, just a picnic basket in the backseat and the sweet aromas of leather and Layla’s perfume.

As Layla turned to go, reality washed back over Dean. She wouldn’t get any of that with anyone, much less Dean. Her reality would not be so rosy, though it would be a damn sight better than his. He wished he could live in Layla’s world, even if parts of it were only smoke and mirrors supported only by a dash of faith. He wished he could have just a taste of what made her so beautiful. With everything inside of him, he reached to find just a little of her grace in himself, and said, “Well, I’m not much of the praying type, but I’m gonna pray for you.”

She smiled up at him so brightly he almost turned away, but he didn’t. He stood his ground and let her shine her light on him.

“Well, there’s a miracle, right there.”


End file.
